Indictment: Former Webb official Jaime Canales used his position to help engineering firm win road contract

Former Webb County Commissioner Jaime Canales and a former Laredo city councilman have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced early Thursday evening.

Former Webb County Commissioner Jaime Canales and a former Laredo city councilman have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced early Thursday evening.

Photo: Cuate Santos /Laredo Morning Times/Courtesy

Photo: Cuate Santos /Laredo Morning Times/Courtesy

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Former Webb County Commissioner Jaime Canales and a former Laredo city councilman have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced early Thursday evening.

Former Webb County Commissioner Jaime Canales and a former Laredo city councilman have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced early Thursday evening.

Photo: Cuate Santos /Laredo Morning Times/Courtesy

Records detail corruption allegations against former city, county officials

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In September 2015, an engineering firm employee gave Webb County Commissioner Jaime Canales proposed wording of a bid for services for a road project, according to a recently filed indictment that charged the former public official with bribery.

The bid would involve the Webb County purchasing department seeking a request for qualifications, or RFQ, for engineering consultant services on a road construction project. The employee, a lead project manager for the firm, then instructed Canales to advertise the bid, the indictment alleges.

Typically, only those who respond to an RFQ and meet the qualification criteria can get the contract.

The indictment states that Canales used his position as commissioner to place the RFQ on the Commissioners Court agenda for their meeting on Oct. 26, 2015. At the meeting, Canales voted to authorize the county's purchasing department to issue the RFQ for preliminary engineering services for the Hachar-Reuthinger project, which involves building a road to connect Mines Road to Interstate 35, north of Loop 20. The city is paying for the Hachar portion; the county the Reuthinger portion.

That same day, on Oct. 26, 2015, the project manager for the engineering firm gave Canales a $5,000 check, which he accepted, according to the indictment. This was disguised in the form a contribution to Canales' re-election campaign, the document states.

On Aug. 4, 2016, the project manager allegedly gave Canales another $5,000 check made out to his campaign. Later that month, the county's purchasing department issued the RFQ.

Then, on Sept. 2, 2016, Canales allegedly asked the project manager for additional funds. He also asked him if his South Padre Island condominium was available that weekend, the indictment states.

On Sept. 26, 2016, Canales and the rest of the Commissioners Court voted to award the Reuthinger road project contract to "Corporation A."

This corporation is not named in the indictment. The indictment only describes it as a civil engineering firm headquartered in Houston with satellite offices in Laredo, McAllen, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. But agenda minutes and video of the meeting show that the firm that received the $300,000 contract from the county was Dannenbaum Engineering. Dannenbaum was also the only firm to respond to the bid, or request for qualifications. The county was eligible for $240,000 of this contract to be reimbursed to them by the Texas Department of Transportation.

The project manager for the engineering firm is also not named in the indictment. He is only referred to as "Co-Conspirator A." The indictment says he is a McAllen resident and served as the lead project manager on most of the engineering firm's South Texas work.

In campaign finance report documents previously requested by Laredo Morning Times, Canales noted receiving a $5,000 check from a Dannenbaum employee, marked as received in October 2015. The address the employee lists for himself is Dannenbaum's main office in Houston.

Also in 2016, Canales served on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, which is made up of TxDOT, city and county officials, and makes decisions on transportation projects in Laredo and Webb County.

On Oct. 13, 2016 there was purportedly a pending issue with the engineering firm's project manager and the MPO.

When he sent Canales a text asking him for help with the issue, Canales replied, "Yes ... no worries my friend," according to the indictment.

At the MPO meeting on Oct. 17, 2016, Canales voted to approve several revisions to their Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, "which approved the plan and secured the funds for a $4.6 million contract modification, which would ultimately benefit Corporation A," the indictment states.

This action added a project to the TIP to develop the plans for the construction of Loop 20 overpasses at Jacaman Road and Airport Boulevard. It was funded for $4,641,030, according to the agenda item.

That Saturday, on Oct. 22, 2016, Canales again contacted the corporation's co-conspirator asking for additional payment, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

On Oct. 25, 2016, he provided Canales a $5,500 check to his campaign, which Canales deposited but did not report on his campaign finance forms, prosecutors allege.

He also allegedly provided Canales with two $1,000 checks for his campaign in January 2017 from two Corporation A employees, according to the indictment.

When Laredo Morning Times reached out to Dannenbaum to comment on this story, their spokesman, Bill Miller, said, "We do not comment on other people's misfortunes and, as such, will have no comment."

Community reaction

On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that Canales and former Laredo City Councilman Johnny Amaya had pleaded guilty that day to conspiracy to commit bribery in a federal court in Houston.

Amaya's indictment was sealed, and therefore the details of his case are restricted to what the U.S. Attorney's Office included in their news release.

Amaya owned JAUC Service Inc., and he was employed by an unnamed co-conspirator as a consultant for Corporation A, according to the news release.

"In this role, Amaya met and spoke with various Webb County and City of Laredo officials to direct them to take actions that benefited the co-conspirator and corporation. Amaya maintained close contact with officials who could help the conspirator and corporation by setting up meetings and passing messages to and from the conspirator," the release states. "Amaya admitted he acted as a middleman between the conspirator and public officials.

"Amaya also supported specific candidates in the November 2016 election cycle by providing rental cars, drivers and gas cards for those rental vehicles to transport voters to the polls, all for which the corporation paid."

Both Amaya and Canales are out on bond, with sentencing hearings set for Feb. 14. They face up to five years in federal prison.

This news seemed to take wings quickly. The FBI raided City Hall, the Webb County Courthouse and Dannenbaum offices across the state in April 2017. But until Thursday's announcement, no charges had been filed in connection with the raids.

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina issued a statement Friday morning, pledging to do his part to end corruption. He was Canales' colleague on Commissioners Court for almost four years.

"Most, if not all, elected positions have a certain level of power," Tijerina said. "While many candidates focus a lot of time, money, and energy trying to win that position of power; some don't know how to handle the position once they are elected. They forget that the position also carries with it a very high level of trust. It's unfortunate to hear that one of our colleagues gave into temptation and succumbed to the offers of private financial gain. Sadly, in doing so, he also violated the same trust that the voters gave him when he was elected. I hope this serves as a reminder to all elected officials to not use your trusted position for private gain.

"It is finally time to end the corruption that lurks in shadows of Webb County Government. This is a clear victory for Webb County and serves as a warning that things done in darkness will be brought into the light. This is the time, more than ever, for our community to come together in unity and pray for our leaders, to hold them accountable, and to rise above our past and look forward to a future of better government."

On Friday, one of his attorneys submitted his letter of resignation to United ISD, where he was employed as student relations coordinator in the Department of Student Relations/Discipline Management. He had been employed by the district for 14 years, according to the letter.

The FBI raids in 2017 have been a refrain in Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz's re-election campaign.

A statement released through his campaign on Friday addressed the news of the guilty pleas.

"Four years ago, I ran for Mayor to clean up our City," Saenz said. "I along with many of our community had strong suspicions that local corruption was rampant, and now such suspicions have been confirmed. Finally! We are beginning to see the results (arrests and guilty pleas) from the April 2017 FBI raids. I will continue to expose any wrongdoing to law enforcement and encourage you to do the same.

"I have no further information on whether others will be arrested. I encourage the community to refrain from further speculation in fairness to those that are not implicated by these investigations at this time.

"We are a strong community! We have set higher standards. We must elect people that rise to our new standards. We will not go back to the arrogance and corruption of the past."

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com